Flappy Bird Developer Speaks Out, Says Game Became “Too Addictive”

I’m sure many of you were in shambles when Vietnamese developer Dong Nguyen decided to pull Flappy Bird from app stores earlier this week. Many speculated overwhelming publicity led the game maker to pull the plug, but in an interview with Forbes, Nguyen says differently.

Nguyen told the publication that he felt the app was too “addictive.” He said Flappy Bird was a game designed to play “when you are relaxed,” and that the global obsession with the app “became a problem.”

Whatever Nguyen’s intentions, the Flappy Bird phenomenon isn’t going away anytime soon. The app, which was estimated to have generated nearly $50,000 per day through in-app advertising, has spawned countless numbers of clones with names like Flappy Plane, Flappy Penguin, and Flappy Angry Bird. Demand for the original remains high, though, as eBay sellers of iPhones with Flappy Bird pre-installed are asking thousands of dollars.

At the end of the day, Flappy Bird is just a craze, the digital equivalent of Pet Rocks or Beanie Babies. But for those of you that had a chance to play, I only have one question: what was your high score?

CollapseShowComments

Nintendo and Apple have enough money. Just let the dev have his game and let the people who want to play it, still play it.

fritzo2162

“Too addictive” means “Cease and Desist Order”.

TankerTuff

I guess u don’t appreciate something til it’s gone. But thousands of dollars for an iphone/I pod with the game preloaded? Come on people the game isn’t even as in depth as say a tamagotchi or a furby.Im sure theres a torrent site or something they could download the game from transfer to phone then open it up and install that way. Probly could find a download by googling “flappy bird.”

Rushil Perera

32

bboyairwreck

Think this game was like a 3 n half minute long session xD. Wish I had lucky patcher to remove that ad from the screenshot. Oh well. Is what it is. Best wishes to Dong

Rodeojones000

Never got past 1. Although I only played the game for about 3 minutes before I realized the craze was for nothing.

Chris

I dobut flippy bird is that much of a craze like beanie babies. I can think of a few other apps that have much more traction to live up to that type of hype

dannyWHITE

Just got my new high score 🙂

Justin Larmay

What what.

Justin Larmay

164. Whoop woop!

Gr8Ray

Never played this game, or heard of it before all the drama, but the dev sounds like a lying douchebag.

KleenDroid

My high score is 37

Higher_Ground

The app stores are full of Nintendo rip-offs, so I think it’s plausible this flew under their radar up until last week.
Nintendo is a company that baffles me at times. They shake up the industry with things like the Wii’s remote and the 3DS, but refuse to acknowledge the huge potential of licensing out their games. I can somewhat understand – if everyone could play 3DS games on their phone then nobody would buy a 3DS, but their market will always be a tiny fraction of what it could be otherwise.

Scott Hardy

101

Guest

There needs to be a separate section to set up these relationships? How do you undo the settings once you’ve made them?

I don’t even understand the obsession, other than because it’s hard to get now. (though not very hard if you just instal the APK under Android). It’s just SF Cave, but worse in every way. Even Impossible Game was better than this if you wanted something challenging. End of the day, SF Cave remains my favorite, and the original, of this genre.

There was one iPhone 5 (might have been a 4s) that was going for over $98,000 before eBay pulled the listing (apparently it says in their terms of service that every phone and tablet sold through them must be factory reset before being shipped).

p4

I thought the game sucked .. jmo

Nexoduss

Ugh the amount of bezel on that phone is disturbing. Haha

Edit: oh and my high score is 63 but Idk I wouldn’t even put this in my top 10 games of all time so Idk what the fuss is about.

Shouldn’t the people who play he game decide if it is too addictive. Typical crap from someone who’s government teaches them what’s best rather than let’s the user make his or her own decision with non-harmful addictions.

ERIFNOMI

He made the game. If he doesn’t like where the game is going, he can quit on it. Are you that upset that it’s gone?

Luis Celis

104:D no shame lol

bkosh84

When did it become HIS decision to become everyone’s moral compass? (Never played the game btw, His attitude just irks me..)

Intellectua1

Hopefully this is the last time we hear of this game..

Intellectua1

This was supposed to be a gif.. Apparently it didn’t upload that way..

Wow! Can’t get passed 20, but then again, I’ve only ever played more than 10 minutes at a time, so probably why. Flappy Bird is too slow! Hmm…I sense a Flappy Turtle clone coming on…lol

jadeveon da destroyer

nailed it this seems most plauable, no one in their right mind is gonna give up a revenue source of 1.4 million a month bc they didnt want people to use it more or over use it

Matt

Why would this make any more sense? Instead of making a quick graphical switch (the pipes are the only thing that I could see being remotely enforcable), and continue to make 50k a day, he makes up a big lie and removes the game completely? There’s no more logic to that than anything else.

TheDrunkenClam

The “bird” (looks more like a fish) very much resembles some of the flying fish in Mario Bros.
This game will be forgotten in a month anyways. Its just the latest casual peasant fad.